{"id":1678,"date":"2025-06-22T17:40:39","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T16:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/?p=1678"},"modified":"2025-06-25T11:48:47","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T10:48:47","slug":"etto-fins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/zgodbe-akrobatov\/etto-fins\/","title":{"rendered":"Etto Fins"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"His brain is wired differently,\" smiles his father. \"We noticed this already in kindergarten. The boy is diligent and obedient, but he didn't understand why he had to colour to a certain line and stick to the limits of how to create. When the others were building walls and houses with Lego bricks, he made a huge tower several metres high. The educators had a hard time, but my wife and I quickly realised that this boy needed something different.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the age of five, Etto built a 3D printer inside Minecraft. At the age of eight, he built his first small rocket. How did he learn? \"Don't look at us,\" his parents take a step back, \"he taught himself everything. We don't even understand most of it.\" YouTube is his world, YouTube teaches him technology, mechanics, space... everything. So, among other things, he watched a video on how to make a rocket. That would do, he thought. But once the propellant was too weak, the second time the wrong mixture, the third time too little depth, the fourth time the wrong materials... After forty attempts, he finally made a rocket that flew 200 metres. \"We never found it. I don't know where it landed,\" he smiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elon Musk School - Ad Astra<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

My father had heard that an American, Elon Musk,<\/strong> has not found a suitable school for his children where thinking outside the box is essential. So he himself founded and financed a school Ad Astra<\/strong>, for which only up to 42 talented children were carefully selected. \"It has been said too good to be true<\/em>. That'll be for Etta!\" To test the reality of this dream, they got on a plane and flew to California.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the pre-selection, they were given a challenge: \"You have 8 planets. Where, why and under what conditions would the human species be most likely to settle?\" Etto built a spacecraft in Minecraft that you can use to visit each of the planets, take air and soil samples, analyse them... He made a video about all this, which clearly impressed the judges. They accepted him for the official selection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The selection consisted of two parts - maths and a game. They were given a certain amount of money to buy and sell artworks. The jury watched them think, make decisions, find the right moment and choose the right amount of money. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was only one problem: the minimum age for Ad Astra was 8 years. Etto was only 7 at the time. They made an exception. Etto was accepted! He was even the first European to be admitted to this school 'for kind, independent and adventurous children', as Ad Astra put it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Elon Musk moved SpaceX's base to Texas, stopped funding the school, and a cowdroid pandemic broke out. But the head of the school and teachers set up a new school, Astra Nova, and continued teaching. It made sense to deliver classes online and to recruit more and more families to support the school's work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Etto\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Professors and practical teaching<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\"We had great teachers,\" Etto is quick to point out. \"One of them, Elvio Sadun<\/strong>, with experience in the patent office, has come up with a practical lesson every day. He once explained how a ski jump works. Another time, we took apart a microwave oven. Another time, he changed the filter in a swimming pool during a live class...\" Practical things to explain how things work, techniques and materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Etta's favourite interlocutor was Professor Andrew Voss<\/strong>who had just come from SpaceX, where he worked on the Falcon 9 project, and was therefore a treasure trove of rocket knowledge. He gave the pupils various mathematical problems. From the simple 'If an object falls from a certain height with a certain acceleration, how long will it take to fall?' to quite complex ones. Etto was one of the few pupils who could solve his problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of all his wide range of interests, he still had his eye on rockets and, predictably, became the leader of the school's Rocketry Club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Interestingly, my teacher, who was an engineer at SpaceX, used Dewesoft software. But I didn't pay attention to it at the time,\" he says, recalling that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After two years, Etto left school and enrolled in a classical school in Italy. \"Quite an interesting but boring experience,\" he comments. At Ad Astra, he had classmates with whom he could talk about building rockets and travelling to other planets. This was something he missed in a traditional school. But he got involved with the Milan Rocketry team, found out about other European and EuRoC teams and then started a team at a local university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact with Dewesoft<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One day he was contacted by Riccardo Petrei <\/strong> from Dewesoft Italy. He recognised the boy's talent and offered him Dewesoft instruments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"I had no idea what Dewesoft was. When I looked at the website, I didn't really understand what I was supposed to do with the products. So at the time I just thanked Riccardo, but said I didn't need it.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Year 7, he made a nuclear reactor for his final exam and brought it to school. \"I liked it. I think I built it well. I told them I couldn't light it up in front of them because I would have to carry too much stuff, but I brought it to show them anyway. To my surprise, nobody was interested except one professor. They were only looking at one little motorcycle I had next to me, and it was humming a bit - nothing special.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reactor construction process is announced by on Linkedin<\/a>. Riccardo still followed him and asked him a second time if he needed anything. This time they exchanged a few words, followed by an invitation to Dewesoft Italy. At first, the team was convinced that Etto was just recording what someone else might be doing. Eventually, they realised with surprise and admiration that it was really all Etto's work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Dewesoft Italy team taught you how to use it Sirius<\/a>. He was delighted! You can now also find videos of his measurements with Dewesoft equipment on Etta's YouTube channel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day, a Tesla coil from Dewesoft Italy piqued Etto's interest. For months they had been struggling with a transistor that broke after only a few seconds of operation. Over and over again. They couldn't find the cause, they didn't understand what the problem was. \"I can solve this,\" said Etto. He was right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He took all the components home. As the original circuit was quite complicated, he completely redesigned it and after a few weeks he managed to get Tesla's coil working.<\/p>\n\n\n